LESBIAN COUNTRY SINGER ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT

Openly lesbian country singer Chely Wright has announced that she is engaged to marry civil rights campaigner Lauren Blitzer.

Wright (40) came out in May last year and is said to be the first country singer in the US to ever do so.

The couple, who met through their youth advocacy work, said, through a spokesperson, that they share a love of Scrabble and that they plan to marry in August.

“The freedom of being out and open about who I am allowed me to find and fall in love with Lauren, the most amazing woman I’ve ever known,” Wright told People magazine.

She also told E! that they plan to have children. “We want a family. The benefit of being out is I get to have everything that everyone else has. I do want a family and I do want traditional things. I just had no idea it would happen so quickly. I feel like it was a blessing from God.”

The Kansas born performer released her debut album in 1994 and received an American Country Music award for Top New Female Vocalist that year. Her 1999 single Single White Female reached number one in the US country charts.

After coming out Wright said that her “record sales went directly in half” and that she received death threats.